A Pleasure Session On Taunton & Bridgwater Canal.

I was looking forward to this day out with long time friend Darren (Big Bird) Greenwood, He doesn't get out much nowhere days with his boys growing up & being an avid Bristol City Fan" He's Not into the carping seen so we decided to go back to the Boat & Anchor stretch we have tried before, I had a good look at the canal yesterday & the colour looked spot on, Not Chocolate but a nice ting to it, We had a nice breakfast in the Burnham Café before stopping of for a day ticket at Thyers of Highbridge where Birdy Wanted to buy a brolley as it was raining quite hard but they had none in stock! Lol. It had died of when we arrived & thankfully the canal still had the ting' to it & we looked to be alone on the bank so really fancied us to catch some of the canals lovely Tench".

We took a short walk past the pub towards wide waters in the trees area & chose what looked like two inviting swims, We got close to the water easy enough & Thankfully the northfulk reeds had been trimmed allowing as to see the cyclists & Walkers. It was just short of 13mts to the far side bramble bush entering the water, Pluming up I had to come away from the bush a couple of feet due to the under water weeds ect but still had just over 3ft of water, I set up two rigs, the one across being a 0.2g float & the other for down the track which was around 6 inches deeper, Both on 0.15-0.13 & an 18 Silver Fish hook.

I started the day feeding a small amount of chopped worm/Caster across, Fed some of the same to my left down the track at 6mts & fed a ball of G/Bait, Choppy & casters off to my right at 10mts again down the track. I started across as did Darren, Single caster saw me connect with a small roach after ten minutes so switched to double caster, After 25mins I fed a small nugget of casters in G/Bait back across & went straight back over it" Five minutes later I had a proper fish on which I soon got back to the top kit as you cant let them find the weed or snags, A nice start with a Tench Around 5lb", We fully expected to soon start getting a few more, I switched to corn on the hook after a couple more small fish bites & missed a proper bite, I thought I had sussed it but couldn't get another bite & nor could Birdy, We spent the next couple of hours starting new lines nearer the cover across but still couldn't find any more Tench, I had topped up the track swims from the off & had a couple of looks without bites, But noticed after about three hours some bubbles appear over the G/Bait fed line at 10mts, I went in with single caster & after less than a minute had a proper bite & landed a fish over 3lb, I went straight back over it this time with double caster & a few minutes later had another fish around 4lb, Straight after this fish I fed another ball of mix on this line & switched to the shorter line which I had been feeding with tiny amounts of casters by hand, I had a couple of chunky Rudd before taking another Tench on single caster with the hook buried, Much to Birdy's disgust as he was still to catch one' He got one back soon after though which cheered him up".

I just kept topping the short lines up with small amounts of feed & switching between them, I had a good afternoon catching the odd tench to 5lb, One perch around a 1lb a couple of rudd to 12oz along with some smaller samples, All my fish came on single & double caster all down the track as I never hooked another Tench across, I forgot the camera today which was a shame but Darren took a photo on his phone which hopefully I can get added to here in due course. As far a Darren's day went he did hook two more Tench but managed to lose them at the net" We'll say its because he rusty Hey" I Had to Laugh though'. He still enjoyed the day catching a decent net of smaller fish & I really enjoyed the change of scenery & to Catch ten Tench out the Canal is a good day by anyone's standards.  

 

As you can see I've now added the pic that Darren took for me on his Phone, Shame he just didn't get the jist that I was supposed to be looking at him but never mind" Lol.